"This is Americana, man. This is rock and roll. These are the Ramones,"
says Ski-Cap.

"Exactly. This is New York, too. And these guys are our own,"
says the Lady.

Under a crisp, November sky in the year of our Lord two-thousand and
three, the City of New York named a street after Joey

Ramone, dubbing the corner of 2nd street and Bowery "Joey Ramone
Place." And inside CBGB's, people paid their tributes.

A great many people turned out to see the naming, so many that the crowd
clogged the Bowery for a brief span around 1 p.m. on Sunday. Steven Van
Zandt, of Sopranos and E Street Band fame, showed up. So did Jim Jarmusch,
the movie director. If you were an especially big aficionado of New York
punk, all
the big names came out, like Legs McNeil and John Holstrom, who actually
coined the term punk.

But the truth of the matter, reflected off the brand-spanking new windows
of a pair of New York University dormitories, is that being named after
a street is not a particularly punk rock thing. Then again, neither is
this once hardscrabble neighborhood. On one corner of Joey Ramone's Place,
are huge apartments offering "fantastic luxury finishes." There's
an ATM inside CBGB's, near the huge television set and computer monitor
in the doorway.

The neighborhood that gave birth to the Ramones and supported New York
City's legendary hardcore scene has become a government sponsored thing.
But this is what happens thirty years after the movement starts. All the
participants are dead and having streets named after them, or they're
middle aged and nondescript.

"Joey was my father's age," says Camo-Jacket Teen.

"How old was your father?" asks Long Island Mom.

"Fifty-two," says the teen, twisting on a Doc Marten shoe on
the pavement. There is a long pause. Marky Ramone walks by, unnoticed.

"I suppose we should go inside," says the L.I. Woman, motioning
to CBGB's. "That's where it all started, right?"

Inside CBGB's, which remains the same lovable fetid dump it was thirty
years ago, the middle-aged and the punk rock jostle for position around
its famed stage. As Hilly Kristal, the loveable owner, makes the rounds
to greet the Lower East Side's aging punk rock royalty, the Ramones blare
over the speakers. All the hits, from "Blitzkreig Bop" to "I
Want to Be Sedated" are played, but it's especially fitting that
"Stop Thinking About It" plays before the speeches begin.

"Stop thinking about it Stop thinking about it Aww,
nothing lasts forever And nothing stays the same "